Letter: It depends on who you ask…..

Dear Editor,

The U.S. economy is either chugging along nicely or seriously struggling, depending on who is asked. The mismatch stems from perception and perspective.

At 4.4 percent, unemployment has been only slightly elevated and the median wage growth of 4 percent has more than kept up with 2.7 percent inflation, all according to December data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It’s understandable that people would be upset about living expenses, even if the inflation rate has subsided, because the previous price increases remain baked-in.

People have a very unrealistic expectation that prices should fall to their pre-inflation spike levels, and that’s totally off the cards.

I think people have had this cumulative disgruntlement about the economy years ago, and that is very hard to overcome.

That’s not to say that there are some troubling signs.Excluding the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, hiring hit a decade low in November 2025, when businesses hired less than 5.1 million people. It has struggled to take off since.

People are not moving and there’s just historically low mobility. That hits young people, who are just entering the labor market, especially hard.

The lowest paid 25 percent of workers enjoyed faster wage growth than the rest of the workforce consistently since mid-2015. But recently, that advantage has disappeared. For the past year and a half, these workers have seen their wages grow substantially slower than the rest, at a 3.5 percent rate in 2025, compared to the 4 percent overall average.

Even the slower wage growth exceeded inflation, but it’s important to understand the reality behind the data.

The economy has also been harsh to older people who find themselves with only a fraction of what they need to save in order to buy basic staples

The savings rate dropped to 4 percent in September, the lowest since 2008, excluding 2022, which was distorted by pandemic stimulus payments.

Credit card debt exceeded $1.2 trillion in the third quarter of 2025, with more than $150 billion of that amount over 90 days delinquent.

At the end of 2024, 36 percent of those surveyed said they couldn’t afford or struggled to cover basic expenses, at the end of 2025, only 24 percent said the same.

The debt data, too, show a positive trend, with the overall debt balance growth slowing down and even dropping a bit in November data, while delinquency rates have followed the same trajectory.

Sincerely,

Jim Outman

Owego, N.Y.